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The ten-member selection panel for the 30th Dresden Film Festival drew up the shortlist from no fewer than 2,200 animated and short feature films. Mandy M\u00fcller, member of the panel for national films, identifies a clear trend among the filmmakers towards social critique: \u201cThe theme of \u2018Flight and Displacement\u2019 \u2013 in other words, the refugee crisis \u2013 is increasingly coming in for more subtle treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Social critique has a long tradition at the Dresden Film Festival, which was founded in the spring of 1989 as a forum for films that were either banned or rarely shown in the GDR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Berlin Wall fell, the organisers looked for a new thematic dimension. With Dresden being home to the DEFA animation studios, the idea of a festival for cartoons seemed highly appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oberhausen, Berlin, Hamburg \u2013 Germany certainly has bigger short film festivals. However, the Dresden Film Festival has not only firmly established itself on the national scene in the last three decades but also acquired a significant international reputation. In recent years, it has pulled in around 25,000 extra visitors to the city. With prize money totalling \u20ac67,000, the Dresden Film Festival is one of the best-endowed short film contests in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n